Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

Offices Held

Biography

Warner was a man of varied employments—perhaps a professional estate manager. He was acting as lieutenant to Sir Nicholas Tamworth†, the constable of Marlborough castle in the early 1370s, as such submitting an account at the Exchequer for £18 1s.1½d. spent on repairs to the royal apartments. In 1379, when he contributed 3s.4d. to the local levy of the poll tax—a sum exceeded only by the mayor—he was described as an inn-keeper. The royal pardon he obtained in 1382 referred to him not only as ‘of Marlborough’ but also as ‘of Blackgrove’, a few miles to the north, possibly his place of origin, but that he lived mainly at Marlborough is suggested by his frequent appearance as a surety for the attendance in Parliament of the borough’s representatives: in 1378 doing so for Richard Polton, in 1382 for John Jenewyne, in 1385 for another inn-keeper, John Polton, in 1388 for John Wyly and in 1394 for John Curteys I.2

It was soon after the end of his term as mayor that Warner was returned to the first Parliament of 1390. He may then have been still acting as lieutenant of the castle. Certainly, he had dealings with Sir William Asthorp†, the constable from 1386 to 1389, who later sued him for a debt of £40. When, in 1402, Warner was pardoned outlawry for failing to appear in court to answer Asthorp, he also owed a similar amount of money to the abbess of Romsey, whose bailiff he had once been.3